Sony reverses wrongful ban of PlayStation 4 player due to ‘offensive’ PSN ID

A PlayStation 4 owner found himself in the middle of controversy after he was wrongfully banned by Sony over what was mistaken as an offensive PlayStation Network (PSN) username.

The gamer started a thread on the PlayStation 4 sub-Reddit to seek help for his situation. He said that he switched to the PlayStation 4 more than a year ago, and has spent “a couple hundred if not a thousand or more” in games and other content for the console.

To his surprise, he recently received an email that he was permanently banned from the PlayStation Network. Upon calling Sony’s official support team, the PlayStation 4 owner discovered that it was due to an offensive PSN ID.

The “offensive” PSN ID in question was Kike_0615, with “Kike” being the user’s nickname for his real name of Enrique and a common name in his home country of Mexico. However, after researching, he found out that the name is also used as an offensive ethnic slur for Jewish people.

Enrique attempted to get his PSN account restored, but he was rebuffed several times. He was not looking to have his username restored in the understanding that his nickname may be misinterpreted, but rather just to reclaim the games and progress that was attached to the PSN ID.

Fortunately, after Enrique received support from other gamers and his predicament started making rounds online, Sony finally reversed its decision. He received a call from a support team manager, who admitted the mistake and informed him that his was account was fully reactivated and his PSN ID restored.

After all that he went through, Enrique still maintained a positive attitude, expressing gratitude to everyone who helped him with his ordeal and revealing plans to continue with a change to his PSN ID.

“We have to keep in mind that the PSN is a global thing and we have to at least take into small consideration how other people feel,” Enrique wrote in a separate Reddit thread in the aftermath of Sony’s decision.

Enrique will be one of the PlayStation 4 owners who will take advantage of the PSN Online ID Change feature, which was announced last month. Beta testers are the first to gain access to the feature, which has its wider rollout planned in early 2019.

The first PSN ID change will be free, but subsequent changes will cost $5 for PlayStation Plus subscribers and $10 for non-subscribers. Sony, however, warned that using the feature may result in lost purchases, save data, and trophies.